New Album Announced
19 February 09
On May 4th (5th in the US), 4AD will release Actor, the anticipated new album by St. Vincent (née Annie Clark), and the follow-up to her first album Marry Me, one of the most acclaimed debuts of 2007. Actor was co-produced by Clark and John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Polyphonic Spree) and features eleven new songs, all written and arranged by Clark.
Actor takes the ambitious compositional and sonic underpinnings of Clark's debut as a starting point and never looks back. The arrangements are more masterful, the songwriting grander, the performances ever more confident and inspired.
Speaking for the first time about Actor, Annie Clark commented, "I wanted to make these songs technicolour animatronic rides."
Photo courtesy of Annabel Mehran
Clark, "a playful chanteuse [and] fearsome shredder" New York Times, sings and plays guitar, bass and keyboard on Actor, with woodwind contributions from Hideaki Aomori (Sufjan Stevens) and Alex Sopp (Bjork, Phillip Glass), and additional rhythm section work by McKenzie Smith and Paul Alexander of Midlake. Other musicians on the album include Mike Atkinson (French horn, score consultant), Daniel Hart (violin, sarongi), William Flynn (bass), and percussionists Jeff Ryan, Matthias Bossi and Aynsley Powell.
Preceding Actor will be the single 'Actor Out Of Work' (out April 20th).
St. Vincent will preview songs from Actor with two shows at this year's South by Southwest conference in Austin: Wednesday, March 18th at the Central Presbytarian Church as part of the 4AD showcase, and Friday, March 20th at Antone's as part of the Billions Corporation showcase. Clark will also tour the U.S. and Europe this year and a full itinerary will be announced shortly.
The first St. Vincent album Marry Me earned widespread praise and led to Clark being named Female Artist of the Year at the 2008 PLUG Independent Music Awards and she has toured extensively with artists such as The National, Death Cab For Cutie and Arcade Fire. Before recording as St. Vincent, Annie Clark was a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' touring band, and performed with Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra.
St. Vincent Actor
RELEASED MAY 4th 2009 (5th IN THE US)
Formats: CD (CAD 2919CD), LP (CAD 2919) & DL (EAD 2919A)
1. The Strangers
2. Save Me From What I Want
3. Neighbours
4. Actor Out Of Work
5. Black Rainbow
6. Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood
7. Marrow
8. The Bed
9. The Party
10. Just The Same But Brand New
11. The Sequel